SAN FRANCISCO, (Xinhua) --
Researchers have recently confirmed that a diet high in fruit and vegetables,
especially those organic, is more environment-friendly.

The study,
published during the weekend in the Frontiers in Nutrition journal, is the first
of its kind that examines the environmental impacts of both dietary patterns and
farm production systems.

Researchers of the
study surveyed more than 34,000 French adults on their preferences for whether
plant-based or animal-based food products and conducted environmental impact
assessment at the farm against three indicators: greenhouse gas emissions,
cumulative energy demand, and land occupation.

“Combining
consumption and farm production data, we found that across the board,
diet-related environmental impacts were reduced with a plant-based
diet—particularly greenhouse gas emissions,” says Louise Seconda from the French
Agence De L’Environnement Et De La Maitrise De L’Energie, who is one of the
study’s authors.

Diets based on
less consumption of animal products, as recommended by the U.N. Food and
Agriculture Organization, are more sustainable, because they have less amount of
energy requirements of livestock farming and greenhouse gas emission caused by
livestock, the study showed.

Seconda hoped that
future studies can take into account other factors like pesticide use, leaching
and soil quality, so as to get a more extensive understanding of how the entire
food production life cycle impacts sustainability.

“We wanted to
provide a more comprehensive picture of how different diets impact the
environment,” Seconda said of the study.